Thursday, August 15, 2013

This And That

You know I'm fond of sharing weird music-related Tumblr sites here (like this one and this one). You know I'm fond of the Smiths. When you combine them, you get a great Tumblr site that feels to me like it's taking the piss out of Morrisey. (Which is funny.) In reality, if you've ever read "Peanuts" on a regular basis, you know it's a pretty grim comic strip anyway. Combining the fatalism of Morrisey's lyrics and Schultz's art seems like a bit of a no brainer now that I think of it.

Also - for those of you heading back to school, don't forget to put "Headmaster Ritual" in your iPods to get you nice and belligerent for the classroom.

Hot on the heels of our last gig, Trowar has another gig in Redmond, Washington on Sept. 7th. As usual, I don't know much about it, but I'm excited to get back at it. You can count on a report afterward. If I can get a camera in the carry on bag this time, I'll take lots of photos.

I finally sat down to watch "The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus". This is a movie I've been meaning to watch for a long time, I just never have. This movie was never released officially to the public until 1996, even though it was filmed in 1968. The long held rumor was that the Stones felt that they were upstaged by the Who's performance. As a life long Who fan, I wanted to see if it was true - that's what drew me to watch this movie. I have several observations:

The Who's performance lived up to the hype. They were spectacular. I'm not sure I'd say they "upstaged" anyone though. To me, comparing the Rolling Stones to the Who is like comparing apples to oranges. The Who's music, influences and stage act is vastly different from the Rolling Stones. There were some minor missteps in the Stones' performance (Mick forgetting to fetch Keef's acoustic guitar between songs, the drawing attention to it, for example); however, these are the sort of things that are not detriments to the enjoyment of a live performance. Indeed, they only enhance it.

Part of the reason the Who was so great was their willingness to act like jackasses. In the introduction and in between songs, it looked like most of the Stones wished they were somewhere else. They were totally not into it; it looked awkward as ass. Not the Who. It's hard to be serious when you've got Keith Moon and Pete Townshed (and probably Entwhistle as well) coked to the gills. In Townshend's case, such drug abuse and general jackassery was meant to cover up deep insecurities. Well, well done. Their performance of "A Quick One While He's Away" was energetic and powerful, and in a nutshell, brilliant.

Marianne Faithfull? Well. . . she's pretty. Let's leave it at that.

It is my understanding that this was Brian Jones' last performance before he died. The Stones were about to kick him out and he knew it. According to Pete Townshend, Brian Jones can be seen in the video hanging around the stage crying. I didn't check to see if this was true. But Townshed said that while Keef ignored Jones, Jagger spent the better part of the day trying to get him to pull himself together for the show.

I think the fact that the Rolling Stones were able to withhold that movie for almost 30 years is a testament to the clout that they have in the business.

For me, the band that blew me away was Jethro Tull - holy shit. They were the #1 freaks in a big top full of freaks: dig the bass player playing that messed up bass while blowing on a harmonica. Dig his jerky movements. Look at Ian Anderson's crazed eyes and trademark stance. Listen to the Led Zep sound before Zep was a household name. And I didn't even know Tony Iommi was in Jethro Tull. You should check out the performance below.